IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 23, 2001, 5 p.m.

Havana, Cuba: Documents released this afternoon on the second day of an historic meeting of former adversaries in Havana highlight missed opportunities for U.S.-Cuban rapproachment following the failure of the U.S.-sponsored invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.

Notes on an April 1963 visit to Cuba by attorney James B. Donovan and a memorandum of statements by Fidel Castro from the same trip, record a secret effort to negotiate the release of American prisoners that also helped to initiate a dialogue between bitter adversaries.

The memorandum also summarizes Castro's perceptions during the invasion, which he believed was intended to secure a beachhead from which to launch a provisional government.  He was thus determined "to prevent the landing of the provisional government at all costs."

Also released today are documents relating to secret efforts by the Kennedy Administration to begin a dialogue with Castro in the days before his assassination in November 1963.  In a February 1964 message to President Johnson, conveyed through ABC News correspondent Lisa Howard, Castro tells the new president "that there are no areas of contention between us that cannot be discussed and settled within a climate of mutual understanding," and expresses hope that Johnson will win the November presidential election and continue with the Kennedy Administration's rapproachment effort.

Another document, a March 1964 memorandum from CIA Director Richard Helms to President Johnson's national security adviser, reports on the alleged secret contacts between President Kennedy and the Castro government in 1963.  The source believes that President Johnson was unaware of the secret dialogue "and for this reason is not continuing President Kennedy's policy."

In its final online release of material related to the conference, the National Security Archive has also posted audio recordings of two telephone conversations between President Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, on March 2, 1963, in which they discuss concerns that a Senate investigating committee might reveal that the president had authorized jets from the U.S. aircraft carrier Essex to provide one hour of air cover for the brigade's B-26 bombers on the morning of April 19.  The unmarked jets failed to rendezvous with the bombers, however, because the CIA and the Pentagon were unaware of a time zone difference between Nicaragua and Cuba. Two B-26s were shot down and four Americans lost.

The conference - involving former officials of the Kennedy Administration, the CIA, members of Brigade 2506, and Cuban government and military officials - convened yesterday in Havana for three days of discussion on one of the most infamous episodes of the Cold War - the April 1961 invasion at the Bay of Pigs. 

Other documents released today include:

A June 15, 1961 dispatch from the Canadian Embassy in Havana in which the ambassador characterizes the Bay of Pigs invasion as "a decisive point-of-no-return for the Castro regime," that "substantiated the Government's warnings against imperialist aggression from the United States."

 

A memorandum from Kennedy aide Richard Goodwin recounting his August 22, 1961 conversation with Ernesto "Che" Guevara in which Guevara thanks Goodwin for the Bay of Pigs invasion - which he calls "a great political victory" - but also seeks to establish a "modus vivendi"  with the U.S. government.

 

A November 1, 1961 memorandum from Goodwin to President Kennedy supporting the concept of a "command operation" on Cuba, commanded by Attorney General Robert Kennedy.  The reorganization of Cuban operations as described in the memo sets the stage for the decision to launch a new, multifaceted set of anti-Castro activities, codenamed Operation Mongoose.

Canadian Embassy (Havana), Dispatch, CONFIDENTIAL, Cuba - Final Impressions, June 15, 1961, 4 pp.

White House, Memorandum, SECRET, Conversation with Commandante Ernesto Guevara of Cuba, August 22, 1961, 5 pp.

White House, Memorandum, TOP SECRET, [Proposal for "Command Operation" in Cuba], November 1, 1961, 2 pp.

John Nolan, Notes, Notes Re Cuban Trip, April 5-9, 1963, 3 pp.

John Nolan, Memorandum, Memorandum on Castro's Statements and Notes on Cuban Trip, April 5-9, 1963, 24 pp.

Typed Message, Verbal Message Given to Ms. Lisa Howard, [From Fidel Castro to Lyndon Johnson], February 12, 1964, 2 pp.

CIA [Richard Helms], Memorandum for McGeorge Bundy, Alleged Contacts between Castro and American Government, March 4, 1964, 1 p.